Calendar for May 31st, 2013

1810s

Born 1819: Walt Whitman (poet)

1820s

1821: First Catholic cathedral in U.S. dedicated, Baltimore, Maryland

1850s

1859: The Great Clock (aka Big Ben) in London officially began keeping time. (On July 11, the Great Bell first struck the hour.) The 315-foot-high tower, part of the Houses of Parliament building, has no elevator; there are 334 steps to the belfry. The four quarter bells, or chimes, ring out every 15 minutes. The Great Bell tolls every hour. The minute hand measures almost 14 feet long. The clock mechanism weighs 5.6 tons, and is wound three times a week. The clock's time is adjusted by changing the number of old pennies sitting on a shelf near the top of the pendulum. The tune played each hour is from the aria "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," part of Handel's Messiah.

1860s

Born 1861: Emily Perkins Bissell (social worker)

1910s

Died 1910: Elizabeth Blackwell (first woman to earn an MD degree in the U.S.)

1930s

Born 1930: Clint Eastwood (actor & director)

1940s

Born 1943: Joe Namath (football player)

1950s

Born 1957: Jim Craig (hockey player & Olympic gold medalist)

1960s

Born 1961: Lea Thompson (actress)

Born 1965: Brooke Shields (actress)

1970s

1970: 7.8 earthquake left over 60,000 dead in Peru

Born 1976: Colin Farrell (actor)

1980s

Died 1983: Jack Dempsey (boxer)

1990s

1990: A summer replacement television show called Seinfeld first aired on NBC

2000s

Died 2004: Alberta Martin (one of the last widows from the Confederate side, died nearly 140 years after the Civil War ended)

2005: The legendary source "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal that brought down President Nixon was identified as W. Mark Felt